Doctors in the central province of Ha Tinh on December 7 removed a six-centimeter plus leech from the larynx of a 36-year-old man where it was believed to have been lodged for nearly a month.

Speaking to Thanh Nien, Dr. Le Thi Ha, head of Ha Tinh Province General Hospital's otorhinolaryngology department said Le Khac Thai was transferred from a hospital in Huong Khe District with a hoarse throat, a general ill feeling and spitting blood on December 6. The man had been suffering from the symptoms for some time.

An endoscopic test detected the bloodsucking worm in his voice box, she said, adding that it was as big as an adult's thumb when doctors took it out.

Thai suspected that the leech entered his nose and then moved to his larynx when he washed his face in a forest stream nearly one month earlier.